Nation/world news in brief

Thursday

Sep 30, 2010 at 6:00 AM

OAXACA, Mexico — Rescue efforts resumed Wednesday for 11 people missing after a hillside collapsed on a town in Mexico’s rain-soaked southern state of Oaxaca.

The government delivered blankets and other supplies to survivors and other who fled their unstable homes for fear of more mudslides in Santa Maria de Tlahuitoltepec. Many sheltered under makeshift tents on the hills.

The landslide early Tuesday caused nationwide alarm after local authorities initially said hundreds could be dead in the remote town, which had been blocked off by landslides and a washed-out bridge.

But hours later, when rescue workers finally reached the community, 11 people were missing and none confirmed dead.

Rains and unstable soil forced police and firefighters to suspend the rescue efforts for hours. The search resumed Wednesday with picks, shovels and a bulldozer in the river of mud and stones.

WASHINGTON — A new study estimates that health costs for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars could top $900 billion, leading one congressman to call for setting up a veterans’ trust fund.

The study by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Linda Bilmes of Harvard University shows the number of veterans, their injury rates, and the cost of treating them have increased rapidly in recent years.

The study said 600,000, of the more than 2.1 million men and women who’ve been deployed, already have received treatment by the Veterans Affairs Department.

U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., said Wednesday that treatment for veterans should be budgeted as part of the cost of war, comparing the program to Medicare and Social Security.

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Her face red and blotchy, the woman who splashed acid on herself in a bizarre hoax made a brief court appearance Wednesday and was ordered by a judge to live in a mental health facility while she awaits trial.

Bethany Storro, 28, has confessed that she made up the story about the facial burns she suffered Aug. 30, saying she put drain cleaner on her face, trying to kill herself or alter her appearance, according to police. She pleaded not guilty Wednesday to three theft counts.

The case drew national attention to the recently divorced woman who works for a grocery chain, and brought in nearly $28,000 in donations to help with her medical bills.

The donations are now at the center of Storro’s criminal trial, which is scheduled for Dec. 20. Court records show she spent about $1,500 of the donations on dinners for her parents, clothes for herself, and a bill for an August laser facial peel.

The accounts containing the donations have been frozen and her parents have said the money will be returned.

The hearing was the first time Storro had been seen in public since a hospital press conference Sept. 1 when her head was covered with bandaging. Her face had large red blotches Wednesday, but was significantly less swollen than her last public appearance.

LONDON — Coast guards are hunting for a pair of missing American balloonists last detected while piloting their craft over the Adriatic Sea in rough weather, officials said Wednesday.

Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis were participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race, an annual race in which teams of balloonists try to see who can fly the farthest from a set point on a maximum of about 1,000 cubic meters of gas.

Abruzzo is the son of famed balloonist Ben Abruzzo, who was part of the first team to cross the Pacific Ocean by balloon in 1981 and who was killed in a small airplane crash in 1985.

The Italian coast guard said a search was under way for the balloon, one of 20 that set off Saturday from the English coastal city of Bristol. The last signal received from the balloon’s GPS was at 8 a.m. local time Wednesday. The signal showed the craft was 13 miles off the Gargano coast in the Adriatic Sea.

CHICAGO — A 12-year-old boy who was shot by a 68-year-old Chicago woman, after he allegedly threw bricks at her and broke the windows of her home, is one of two boys facing an assault charge.

Chicago police say the 12-year-old and a 13-year-old boy were charged Wednesday with juvenile misdemeanor aggravated assault to a senior citizen. Police say the woman won’t be charged because she was acting in self-defense.

According to police, she had gone grocery shopping Tuesday and returned home to find her windows broken and two boys fleeing the area. The boys later returned and allegedly threw bricks at her. Police say she then pulled out a gun and began firing, hitting one child in the shoulder.

From Associated Press reports.

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